Georgia's ancient and vibrant
capital city spreads out on both banks of the
Mtkvari River, and is surrounded on three sides
by mountains. The most widely accepted variant
of the legend of Tbilisi's founding says that in
the mid-5th century AD, King Vakhtang I
Gorgasali was hunting in the heavily wooded
region with a falcon. The King's falcon
allegedly caught or injured a pheasant during
the hunt, after which both birds fell into a
nearby hot spring and died from burns. King
Vakhtang became so impressed with the hot
springs that he decided to cut down the forest
and build a city. The name Tbilisi derives from
the Old Georgian word "tbili", meaning warm.
Archaeological studies of the region indicate
human settlement in the area early as the 4th
millennium BC - See more at: